


You've Given Me All My Chances

by cashmiracles



Category: Naruto
Genre: Abandonment Issues, Reflection, au: zabuza dies | haku lives, talking to a literal grave
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-01
Updated: 2018-02-01
Packaged: 2019-03-12 05:23:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13540617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cashmiracles/pseuds/cashmiracles
Summary: Haku grieves and wishes things could be different.





	You've Given Me All My Chances

**Author's Note:**

> really short and done in like 10 minutes as a warmup w/out proper editing.
> 
> if you have any more naruto requests i'd be happy to hear them. i mostly take m/m pairings.  
> find me @ hakuyooki.tumblr.com lmao

Haku stood over the grave in which _his_ beloved Zabuza was buried, dug deep with his own hands, assisted by three shinobi who he barely met yet knew so well. You could tell a lot about someone by their eyes, and all of them, even the jonin showed him nothing but their deepest sympathies.

Haku couldn't cry. He didn't have the energy to. 

He knelt by the soft dirt, staring blankly at the sword stabbed into the earth which he had never not seen on Zabuza's back, in Zabuza's grasp, just in reach of Zabuza - useless, now. Nobody to wield it. Nobody worthy.

Each night when he left Zabuza's grave anxiety would eat at him so that he couldn't sleep, gnawed at him endlessly. He was afraid to wake up and find that sword gone. That precious, precious momento of his beloved teacher. 

He pulled the sword from the earth and patted the dirt back into place that came with it, smoothing it all out before laying it over his lap, comically huge for his tiny frame. 

He didn't know what his reasoning was, not entirely. But he knew he had to keep it safe. Away from filthy, prying hands who would use this sword for their own ends - it was Zabuza's. Only Zabuza's. Handed down through generations to end up in his skilled hands as the instrument of his dream. A weapon.

He was freed from his role as one when Zabuza breathed his last, spoke to him so kindly and cried - told him that he was so special to him. Not a tool. Not his weapon. A human being.

Haku clutched the hilt of his sword in hand and stood.

"Zabuza, will this be my weapon now? Will I be the one to continue where you left off now that you are gone?"

The realisation of this new responsibility weighed heavily upon him, and the last thing he wanted to do was to continue life as a shinobi - though what else was he good for? He didn't know. He'd spent his entire childhood with Zabuza. He felt lost without him, now. How many lies had he been told by him? How little of his potential was realised? What else could be? Were there other avenues for a shinobi trained from such a young age, with no family, no proper education? Only that which he learnt on the road, from his master, from the birds and trees and wind and sun?

"My future is uncertain, Zabuza. But I suppose I never had a future to begin with. You gave me a purpose, and now you've altered my path again. I never thought that my future wouldn't be with, or end with you though."

He smiled wistfully as the gulls cried and soared ahead, heading their way to the sea after pestering the locals for food. He had to leave now, too. He couldn't take Zabuza with him. But he could visit. He would visit.

He needed to figure things out first.

"I'll be back soon, Zabuza. I don't want to squander this third chance you've given me."


End file.
